Fan-folded stack of corrugated board for tubular containers



July 29, 1952 c. w. APGAR FAN-FOLDED STACK OF CORRUGATED 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 Filed March 18, 1949 ZNVENTOR. (ZHRRLES W. FQPGFQR July 29, 1952 c. w. APGAR 2,604,984 FAN-FOLDED STACK OF CORRUGATED BOARDFOR TUBULAR CONTAINERS Filed March 18, 1949 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 INVENTOR. CHARLES W-A QlqR Patented July 29, 1952 FAN-FOLDED STACK 0F CORRUGATED ;BOARD FOR TUBULAR CONTAINERS Charles W. Apgar, Philadelphia,*Pa., assignor to Seaboard Container Corporation, Bristol, Pa., acorporation of Pennsylvania Application Matt 18, 1949, Serialf'No. 2,138" f v This invention relates generally to apparatus of the type adapted to produce corrugated paper board in endless strip form and more specifically to such apparatus in combination-With means adapted to form container-forming blanks of said board in folded strip form;

Heretofore and prior to the present invention, it has been the common and conventional practice in the manufacture of corrugated board for use as container blanks to produce individually cut and scored blanks of the exact size and shape required to form a particular carton or container, the individual blanks being then shipped to the user to be set up by the latter into carton formas required to meet his packaging requirements. In many instances the products to be packaged by an individual user of the corrugated paper board containers vary in size and thus require correspondingly different sized containers, 7

as a result of which the user of the container is required to maintain on hand a considerable stock of different sizes of container blanks cer'-' tain of which may be only infrequently used.

This problem of economically maintaining "on hand an adequate stock of container blanks is particularly acute in the case of Venetian blind manufacturers, for example, who manufacture blinds of varying widths and so find it necessary to use shipping containers of correspondingly varying lengths. blind manufacturer finds itself without a supply on hand of the requisite length shipping con tainer and to prevent such occurrence the blind manufacturer usually maintains on hand asupply of all sizes of c0ntainers, many of which sizes It sometimes occurs thatthe.

are so infrequently used in relation to others as to be economically wasteful both from the standpoint of money invested in inventory. and

space consumed in the storage of excess container blanks.

The present invention has as its principal object the manufacture of corrugated-paper board in continuous strip form for use in the produc tion of tubular containers and the'arranging thereof in fan-folded bundles'for shipment to and storage by the user of .the container, the arrangement of the board as supplied to; the containeruser being such as to enable the latter tomake up containers of different length to most economically meet his special packaging requirements and to dispense with the necessity of maintaining on hand a stock of different sized blanks for corrugated paper board containers.

It is an object of the present invention to providea container-forming blank in'strip form of required and it corrugated paper board comprising continuous sections 'of said board fan-folded along trans-' verse lines to form a pile of board sections, the lengths of the containers'ada'pted to'be made from'said blank being independent of the lengths of said sections. 1 I

It is a still further object of; the present invention to raise the dischargedtransversely scored endless board strip to such an elevation above a base level as to permit the board strip to descend'and'to be upon said levels An additional object is to provide means for successively and continuously forming partial folds between adjacent tate the fan-folding operation.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will appear more fully hereinafter, it being understood that the present invention con sistssubstantially in the'combination, construction, location and relative arrangement of parts and in the method of procedure, allias described in the followingspecification, as shown in the accompanying drawings and as finally pointed out in the appendedtclaimp In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the discharge end of a-continuous corrugated board forming machine in association with an upwardly extending inclined chute uponwhich the board is moved to a position for fan. folding;

Figure 2 is a fragmentaryview insection showingtheformation-of transverse score or fold lines in; the board by the scoring rollers ofthe' boardformingmachine;

Figures 3, 4 and --5j;,are showingvarious board; 5

Figure 6 is a plan viewof a length: of the continuousboard showing the transverse fold linesand longitudinal score lines; and v p 1 Figure 7 is a perspective view showing acontainer madefrom alength of board obtained;

from the fan-folded pile thereof.

- 'Heretofore in the art of forming relatively long, narrowcorrugated cardboard containers of the type used to box relativelylong narrow products,.;such as rolled up of. compacted Venetian blindsorthelikeit has been customarytoprovide container-forming blanks of varying lengths depending upon the lengths of the productsto be boxed;, ,Accordingly .it was necessary fog the container-formingblank manufacturer to make up quantities of blanksof the-individual lengths fan-folded in a pile of sections board sections to facilidiagrammatic views stages in the fan-foldingof the;

w n ess for; the u er bf quantities of different length blanks one sizewould be used to the exclusion of other sizes.

coincide with the actual It would then be necessary to re-order or'to cut down larger size blanks to a smaller size for immediate use resulting in undesirable waste :of

material. Furthermore space would be needed to store the unused blanks.

The present invention overcomes the. disadvantages of the prior art by creating container' forming blanks in such form as to avoid'waste',

as well as to avoid the necessity of storing a large number of different sizeblanks. Thecontainerforming blanks of the present inventionare cut to correctlengthas needed from a single source 7 of supply-made up in the-form of fan-folded continuous sectionsof corrugated board. "Accordingly there is little or no waste of material'in the box making and there is a tremendous saving in storage space-with its attendant economy inreduced inventory.

The formation ofithe fan-folded box :blanks will be understood by'reference to'the. drawings, 1 wherein Figure 1 shows the discharge end Ill-of a conventional machine H adapted to manufacture'the relatively stifhcorrugated-paper board i2 continuously in endless strip iorm.- This 'ma-' chine customarily cutsthe-board strip transversely into separated lengths by means of knives set in a pairof opposed-upperand lower rotary rollers vIii-43, prior to discharge-of the-board under power; cutting knives are replaced by scoring bars In -the present: invention, 'these l4-I4-set in the outer surfaces of 'rollersil3--i3 so that the projecting lends thereof are Jperiodically in sufiiciently close-registry during each rotation of the rollers,

l2 therebetween' to score its. opposite outer surfaces to Figure2, with the" board the same-inwardly from form fold lines'l5 at spaced intervals along the :endless strip of the board l2. It will-beinoted that boardl2 is provided with longitudinally; extending" score lines 16 oneach side ofla centralLlongitudinally...

extending cut' or separating 'line I1, these" lines having been formed inithe board by theimachine L l l at I operational stage preceding:thatof thescoring rollers l3--l3. The cut linefl f-is pro-=- vicl'ed so'thatflengths oi the board l2 mayhe readily separated into identical halves with each 1 blank. It will be 1 half providing a box forming obvious that the separatirig'line [1 may be placed off-center or entirely eliminated depending-upon the width of the warm: the boxes desired to 'be' made-"from the blanks.

-60 and i'ipon' the size of TI Likewise the particularnumber' -and spacing of the transverse score'lin'es lfi may be changed depending" upon the shape and the number of sides desired in the firii'shed box. For example, with the present numberof four equally spaced score lines |6, "a rectangular box;- as-shown in- Figure "7, maybe conveniently-made.- -However by'providing a greater or lesser number'of-score lineseither equally or unequally spaced other shaped multi-sided'boxes mayreadi-ly be formed As the board strip chine l I it is desirably raised to a sufiicient-height for fan-iolding above the surface upon which the I2 is discharged-by the ma- 4 folded board is adapted to be received. In the present embodiment of the invention, a relatively long upwardly extending sufi'iciently wide smoothsurfaced inclined member I8 of any suitable material is provided in extension of a delivery table or conveyor l9 suitably supported on the framing of themachine l I .immediately in advance of the scoring rollers l3-i3 at a level to properly receive the horizontally discharged moving board l2. In extension of the upper end 20 of the member it there is provided a relatively short smoothsurfaced downwardly extending member 2| having a terminal end 22 disposed above a movable pallet 23 upon which the folded board is to be i stacked: Suitable supporting uprights 24 and 25 rotary speed of the rollers l3l3 has been adjusted relative to the linear speed of the board l2 therethrough to provide transverse fold lines l5 uniformly spaced apart therequisite distance, the board 12 is dischargedin endlesslengthto move forwardly-over the table lfi, then over the inclined "member 18 to the end 2il thereof and thence downwardly over -the-- inclinedmember: 2| to the free end-'22 thereof fromwhence it descends to a position where one-- or more operators guide and foldthe-board: alternately in opposite directions along the lines [5 preparatory to stacking the'same on the receiving pallet 23. Referring to Figures 1, 3, -4 and 5, it will be noted that due to its inherent stiffness, the boardl4,as= it is fed along the inclined member l8, continues on-in substan-: tially its own plane (Figure '4) to 'presentsucces sive'fold lines 15 'at the high-point or corner 20, whereupon the board is successively partiallyfoldedalong-its fold lines l5 over thesaid corner 20 so that further movement of the board is in a downward direction: over the reversely in clmed'mer'nber'2 l ,where the board 12 is again reverse' folding by the ope'rator.

At thebeginning of the operation (Figures 1 and-3) ,initial section-A of board 42 is deposited on pallet 23 after the operator has folded section B, relative to section A, in a directionop'posite to the fold imparted previouslybetween these sections by the 'edges 20 and 220i the overhead board delivery'structure. 'As seen i'n'Figure 4 as"-- the boardadvances'section C has moved from its position-in Figure 3' in order to fold over section- B along the direction of the folds previouslyimparted to these sectionsX'In order that section 1 D may move from its"pos itio'n in Figure-3 to'befolded over section 0, the direction of the established'fold between sections 0 and D (Figure 36' is reversed by the operator from that shownin" Figure 4. As the board continues to be folded in sections, it is stacked upon pallet 23 until a pile of suificient height is obtained, as show'n in Figure 5, whereupon the stacked pile with its -'pallet may be removed to permit the formation of succeeding stacks on other pallets. It is customary to cut the board upon the removal of each stack of folded sections, the latter then being in convenient form for whatever further handling is required.

In order to form a container blank of any desired length from the folded board sections regardless of the length of the sections between fold lines l5, it is only necessary to open out the top few folded sections and then to cut off the desired length without regard to the position of the fold lines. If the board is provided with a cutting line H, the cut length is first separated into two halves to provide two container blanks. In the portion of the board shown in Figure 6 there are two fold lines and it may be that a cut off length will contain one or more of these. As shown in Figure 7, the relatively long box 26 is formed from a blank cut to requisite length from the unfolded board shown in Figure 6. The box illustrated is formed by folding the blank along the longitudinal score lines I6 and securing the opposite side panels in overlapped relation by any suitable means. The ends of the box may remain open or may be closed in any desired manner. It will be noted that once the box 26 has been completed the transverse fold lines I 5 have no effect upon the strength and rigidity thereof. In a similar manner boxes of any requisite length may be formed and it is possible to make them of any multi-sided shape, by the proper disposition of the longitudinal score lines in the fan-folded strip of the contamer-forming board.

It will be understood, of course, that the present invention is susceptible of various changes and modifications which may be made from time to time without involving any departure from the real spirit or general principles of the invention, and it is accordingly intended to claim the same broadly, as well as specifically, as indicated in the appended claim.

What is claimed as new and useful is:

A fan-folded stack of corrugated paper-board material adapted for use in the formation of tubular containers of varying length, said stack being formed of a continuous web of said material transversely scored along equally spaced parallel lines to provide relatively foldable sections of uniform length, said sections being reversely folded into flat superimposed relation to form said fan-folded stack thereof from which the uppermost sections may be unfolded for presentation in coplanar relation to provide an extended web portion which may be severed from the stack along any line paralleling the transverse score lines, the severed portion constituting the blank from which may be formed the tubular body of a container of predetermined length, said web being continuously scored along at least three transversely spaced parallel lines extending lengthwise of the web and across the transverse fold lines thereof at right angles thereto.

CHARLES W. APGAR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 929,450 Langston July 27, 1909 1,391,281 Snyder Sept. '20, 1921 1,756,392 Smith Apr. 29, 1930 1,817,113 Upson et a1 Aug. 4, 1931 1,891,367 Broderick Dec. 20, 1932 2,024,013 Sidebotham Dec. 10, 1935 2,075,679 Weber Mar. 30, 1937 2,091,291 Ringler Aug. 31, 1937 2,344,359 Lehmann Mar. 14, 1944 

